Medicine & BodyGreek → English
Paroxysm
/ˈpærəksɪzəm/noun
A sudden violent attack of a disease or an emotion.
The Greek roots
παρά
pará
beside, intensifying
ὀξύνειν
oxýnein
to sharpen, goad
Literally: “a sharpening”
The story of the word
Greek physicians used paroxysmós for the point at which a fever sharpened, the spike in a malarial cycle that came back every third or fourth day. English kept the medical sense from the fifteenth century and added the emotional one later, so a paroxysm of laughter is now unremarkable. Oxýs, sharp, also produced oxygen, which Lavoisier named in the mistaken belief that it made acids, and oxymoron, sharp-dull.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
oxygenoxymoronparoxytoneamphioxus
In a sentence
The cough comes in paroxysms, then a long whoop while she gets her breath.